Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory: Video Inconsistencies & Logic Explained By Experts
Conspiracy theories continue to push their beliefs on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to an increasing levels with a viral internet truther video that's been watched by millions in little over a week.
A 30-minute clip titled "The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed" was put up on the YouTube channel ThinkOutsideTheTV, where it has received over 8.6 million views and counting. The video used coverage of the shooting to highlight what the theorists believe to be evidence of a hoax.
The footage started off with a disclaimer that read, "This is a simple, logical video. No aliens, holograms [sic], rituals or anything like that, just facts."
"The video begins with something that really everybody can accept -- 'We are just raising questions.The whole subject is framed like, 'Don't look at us, we're not saying this crazy stuff, we're just asking questions.' All they offer are tantalizing 'could be's," author of "Media Mythmakers" Benjamin Radford told the The Huffington Post.
David Mikkelson, founder of the myth-squashing website Snopes, backed up Radford's thoughts on the controversial video's flaws:
"In any kind of disaster or tragedy like this, if you go through things with a fine-toothed comb, you will find a number of contradictory statements. Of course, most of them are cleared up within a few days of the initial reporting, but it's not something you're going to see in these [conspiracy] videos."
The theorists were quick to point out that the parents of the shooting victims didn't express the proper amount of grief, but the data they used wasn't sufficient enough to fully support their beliefs, stated Robert Blaskiewicz, writer for Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
By using selected portions of news data as evidence to those claims is "beneath worthless and is actually misleading. Doing that means ignoring vast quantities of evidence that doesn't support their conclusion," he said.
